SELLER: Robert DeNiro / Diahne AbbottLOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $14,000,000
SIZE: 4,158 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday Your Mama received a covert communique from an informant we call The Rolling Stone who told us about a New York City townhouse long owned by iconic actor Robert DeNiro had arrived on the market with an asking price of $14,000,000. Not surprisingly, the fine folks at The Real Deal beat us to this celebrity real estate punch.
Listing information states this is the "first time in over 30 years" that the 4-floor (plus basement) townhouse has been on the market. Property records reveal that it has actually been almost 36 years since Mister DeNiro acquired the townhouse in October of 1975 for–are y'all sitting down for this–$190,000. No, bunnies, we did not leave out a zero, Mister DeNiro actually paid, according to property records, $190,000 for the the house that's now listed at almost 75 times that amount.
As best as we can tell from the property records the house is owned by Mister DeNiro but occupied by his first wife Diahnne Abbott, the proud momma of New York City über-agent Raphel DeNiro who–natch–holds the listing the pretty West Village pad that overlooks James J. Walker Park where a scene of Raging Bull was shot and where young children scream with delight all day every day as they clamor around on the jungle gyms and swing sets. The New York City Tax Man shows the house measures 4,158 square feet and current listing information shows it's an impressive 22-feet wide, has voluminous 12-foot ceilings on the parlor floor and includes 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.
The Real Deal notes the brick-built house sits just a few doors down from the Huxtable's house on The Cosby Show and a few more doors down from the house where Audrey Hepburn's character lived in Wait Until Dark.
Once upon a time, Your Mama presumes, the main entry was up a stoop on the parlor floor but floor plans included with listing information show that the main entrance is now on the garden level where there is a den/office/bedroom with private pooper and a 32-foot long eat-in kitchen that opens out to a "secluded private garden." The finished basement level has oodles of storage and a room at the back that looks like it might be used as a fitness room with adjoining sauna and stall shower.
The parlor floor has a somewhat awkward but not unworkable plan that consists of a tight but elegant stair hall that leads to a small library/chamber and larger living room with fireplace and a trio of windows that looks down into the rear gardens. A short hall with powder pooper and a pair of coat closets connects the library/chamber to the impractically located dining room.
The master suite occupies the entire third floor and is comprised of large bedroom, substantial private terrace and a bathroom larger than at least two of the townhouse's other bedrooms. An additional room on the third floor–marked as a bedroom on the floor plan–would make an ideal dressing room and Your Mama would be shocked if it were not being used as such by the current resident.
Two large bedrooms and and two tiny bedrooms on the top floor share a single compartmentalized bathroom. Iffin this were our house–and it will never be our house–we'd convert each of the two tiny bedrooms on the fourth floor into fitted dressing rooms for the two larger bedrooms. A discrete door opens into a claustrophobic closet-sized space where a spiral stair winds up to the roof.
In addition to the West Village townhouse, Mister DeNiro's property portfolio also includes an ocean front residence in Montauk, NY, on the same stretch of precious sand as fashion tycoon Ralph Lauren, publishing poobah Jann Wenner, and real estate magnate Steve Roth who in 2008 famously paid $9,400,000 to acquire the beach front house of fallen (an imprisoned) financier Bernie Madoff.
In October 2006 Mister DeNiro and his second wife Grace Hightower paid $20,090,000 to acquire a spectacular 15 room duplex at The Brentwood on Central Park West that they bought from Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein's ex-wife Eve. Listing information from the time of the purchase shows the low-floor duplex had 5 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms and living room that converted to a state-0f-the-art 35mm screening room.
NOTE: The above photograph shows an out of control vine of some sort cleaving to the front façade. The image is from, according to the Property Shark website, 2005. The choking vine has since been removed as per the single tiny photograph of the exterior presented with the online listing.
photo: Kate Lenova / Property Shark
floor plan: Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate
